The fenced off and abandoned swimming pool at Kaluakoi Villas will soon be open again, assuming Molokai Properties Limited complies with a legally binding arbitration ruling made December 24.
Barring any major appeals, Molokai Properties Limited, the parent company of Molokai Ranch, will have to bring the pool and the surrounding grounds back to their previous condition. In this case, Molokai Ranch is known as Kaluakoi Villas LLC, the respondent to a legal claim made by the West Molokai Resort Association of Apartment Owners. For the purpose of this story, the respondent is called Molokai Ranch.
The closing of the pool goes back to the Molokai Ranch shut down in April of 2008 when the Ranch laid off 120 people. The company simultaneously shut down the 18-hole Kaluakoi golf course, the Ranch Lodge in Maunaloa as well as the Maunaloa movie theater and all other properties. That summer Molokai Ranch threatened to shut off all water and sewer utility services to residents on the West End, in violation of agreements with those homeowners. Through legal intervention by Maui County, the state Public Utilities Commission and the State Department of Health, Molokai Ranch was compelled to continue providing these utilities.
But in December of 2008, Molokai Ranch shut down the Kaluakoi pool and placed a fence around it, which also blocked beach and beach shower access for that area.
In arbitration, Molokai Ranch presented a counterclaim to explain its failure to maintain the property. Molokai Ranch claimed that the association owed it over $40,000 in back dues. Molokai Ranch also claimed that the state Department of Health would not allow it to reopen the pool. The arbitrator, retired judge Patrick Yim, said that none of these arguments allows Molokai Ranch to walk away from its cross easement agreements with the apartment owners association.
Molokai Ranch has now been ordered to immediately pay $75,000 in punitive damages to the apartment owners association and to return the pool to its former condition, maintain the surrounding walkways and the former hotel lot. Unfortunately, this arbitration ruling does not extend to the Kaluakoi golf course.
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